ARTIST | PHILOSOPHER | WRITER

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from French Fries

Being a vegetarian I’m not much for fast food, nor am I generally inclined to eat ‘all American’ dishes like burgers, pizza and fries. Despite my aversion to these quick-fix delicacies one day I just so happened to be in the mood for a good veggie burger. After some searching I found a local restaurateur that had previously passed my foodie test. I ordered, food arrived and I began to eat.

While I dug into the fries first, I found myself being quite selective with which ones I ate. I took a break to have a few bites of the burger, then, back to the fries! I was nearly done with my scrutinous frite picking when I had an epiphany. I’d picked through all of the bad fries. I had chosen to eat all the ones that were scrawny, crunchy, short and misshapen first. So this was my great realization:

Getting through with the bad first, leaves you to enjoy all the good.

We all complain about the bad things that happen to us in life. Sometimes it seems like the ‘bad’ is all happening at once and you can’t escape this troublesome fate, but things can’t remain bad always.

In life you must learn to take the good with the bad. In my situation the French fries were all mixed in together, but I was able to recognize that there were good fries to be had. I just had to pick out the worst ones first. Such is life – you get things dumped on you in a heap, all at once.

An elderly woman that I once knew always said: “If it ain’t one thing it’s two or three.”. This humorous colloquialism bears some truth. Generally you have more things to worry about than few, but with every bad turn there is good to be seen.

Consider this:

Is the bad protecting you from something worse? – Would getting a flat tire be so bad to you if you knew that a few blocks up the road a tree fell on someone’s car?

Is this the first time you’ve had ‘bad’ like this? – Are you broke because you have no income or because you don’t budget and balance your finances?

Do you recognize that ‘bad’ makes you better? – Were you able to teach your children the severity of drugs based on your experience of dealing with a drug-addicted mother?

We will never be able to predict what will happen in the future. Life is akin to chance, there is always variable possibility. What we can do, is be appreciative that things are not worse, learn from the things we’ve gone through and share the lessons that made us stronger.

Just to think, if I never stopped to eat a few crummy French fries, I wouldn’t have given notice that there is some good in the midst of all things that are bad!

RICHARD ELLIOTT is a NYC based writer who endeavors to involve himself in programming & activities which improve the quality of life for all. Follow Richard on Twitter: @mohguhl | Facebook: /TheMOHGUHL | YouTube: mohguhlvideo